Rugby League Ashes: Wane wants England to match Australia’s ruthlessness in second Test

England find themselves going up against a whole heap of momentum on Saturday when they take on Australia in the second Rugby League Ashes Test at the Hill Dickinson Stadium in Liverpool.

Shaun Wane’s side go into the game 1-0 down in the three-match series following last weekend’s 26-6 loss to the Kangaroos at Wembley, and they know there is no room for mistakes now after their error-ridden showing in the capital.

And Wane has told The Last Tackle, The Sportsman Rugby League’s weekly YouTube show, that he was hugely disappointed with the way the first clash shook out.

“It had the potential of being a fantastic game, and we didn’t get to them levels. We undersold ourselves, we didn’t play anywhere near as well as we can. And that’s disappointing,” he explained to The Sportsman’s Lewis Smith.

“We’ve analysed what we did last week, we’re still looking now at what drills we did, how many days we trained, did we train too hard or not hard enough. We’ll make sure we don’t make the same mistake and that it’s a good week this week.”

England rarely got into particularly good territory over the 80 minutes as a Reece Walsh-inspired touring side outscored them by four tries to one.

“Without getting too technical, our play-four and five kicks weren’t the best,” Wane adds. “We didn’t give ourselves a chance to get them coming out of their end, but they did the same to us and they were camped down in our end quite a bit.

“It was tough to handle. They did a lot of good things really well, but we just turned the ball over so much. It was not like us.”

Many of the underlying stats favoured the hosts, with England making fewer errors, conceding fewer penalties, and enjoying almost twice as much ball in the opposition 20. But Wane concedes that Test match rugby league is all aboiut the big moments.

“They made line breaks and were ruthless, and we made line breaks and made errors. You can have as much possession as you want, but if you’re not clinical in crucial moments it’s going to get away from you.”

And the 61-year-old adds that the lack of yardage success was a big factor, with England gaining just 32 metres per set compared to the Kangaroos’ 47.

“They won that, and that’s a big area where we need to get better. Their line speed was better than us, and where collisions took place they beat us at that as well. But all those areas can be fixed, we just need to be mentally good this weekend.”

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Jez Litten was one of the few bright spots, with his spark off the bench helping to give England a bit of impetus.

And the Hull KR hooker tells The Last Tackle that he’s still excited for what lies ahead in the final two fixtures.

“It’s a must win. The next two games are. We know what we’re up against and what we’ve got to do this week,” says Litten.

“I watched Everton the other night, and it seemed like a great atmosphere there, so to be able to play there at a great stadium in such a great occasion would be a dream really.

“Hopefully we can get the job done and take it to Headingley for a decider.”

The second Test gets underway at 14:30 GMT on Saturday, with the final fixture at AMT Headingley in Leeds seven days later.

The Sportsman Rugby League will continue to deliver all the latest reaction to each game throughout the series.

You can read all our latest Rugby League Betting Tips at our dedicated Betfred Insights Rugby League content hub.